Love him or loathe him, Andrew Forrest puts heat on wealthy to do more

Mining magnate Andrew Forrest and his wife Nicola have made headlines with their philanthropic donation of $65 million to fund 25 student scholarships and six postdoctoral researchers.

The funds have already been donated to the University of Western Australia, which will set up the Forrest Foundation to administer the project and select candidates.

Details are sketchy with the research areas yet to be chosen, but they are expected to include humanities, engineering, business and science.

Despite the generous donation, the great-great nephew of WA's first premier has his share of critics.

Some investors will never forgive Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest for the near collapse of nickel explorer Anaconda Nickel.

The former stockbroker drummed up investor support from the likes of commodities trading house Glencore and mining giant Anglo American.

But in 2001 as the company's flagship project stalled and the share price plummeted, Anglo American led a bid to oust Mr Forrest as chief executive of Anaconda.

Mr Forrest called it "a nasty precedent in Australia's corporate history" and later agreed to step down.

Anaconda went on to become nickel producer Minara Resources.

One of Australia's richest people

Rising from the ashes, Mr Forrest led Fortescue Metals to become the world's fourth biggest iron-ore producer, despite scepticism the company would not achieve its goal of producing and shipping 155 million tonnes of iron ore a year.

BRW Magazine estimates Mr Forrest is worth nearly $4 billion, making him one of Australia's richest people thanks to China's demand for iron ore.

He is the majority shareholder in FMG and made $100 million alone in the 2013 financial year from dividend payouts.

In recent times he has stepped away from the running of the business to focus more on philanthropy, including the setting up of Indigenous employment schemes such as GenerationOne and anti-slavery organisation Walk Free.

Mr Forrest and his wife have joined the movement founded by US billionaires Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett that pledges to donate the majority of their wealth to charity.

The website of the Forrests' foundation Minderoo says the family have donated more than $270 million to charitable causes.

The mining billionaire led the fight against the mining tax and failed in a bid to have the tax thrown out by the High Court.

He has also fallen out with some of Fortescue's former US investors, even though early investors have reaped big returns.

No favourite of corporate regulator

Mr Forrest is also no favourite with the corporate regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

ASIC accused him of misleading investors after he told the share market that FMG had binding agreements with Chinese investors to build iron-ore infrastructure in the Pilbara.

ASIC won the case on appeal with the Full Court of the Federal Court ruling that Mr Forrest and FMG had deceived shareholders.

Mr Forrest took the case to the High Court and won.

He further raised the ire of ASIC when he phoned after his court victory to offer advice on regulation.

Champion of Indigenous issues

Mr Forrest has also been a champion of Indigenous employment schemes.

Fortescue employs 461 Indigenous people out of a 3,752-strong workforce with the goal of 15 per cent of the workforce being Indigenous by 2015.

But Fortescue has also been in dispute with native title holders over access to land.

The company was accused of rigging a meeting with native title holders to obtain the right to mine iron ore at its Solomon Hub in the Pilbara.

Earlier this year, the Federal Court ruled against a breakaway indigenous group that FMG had supported to gain native title access.

Spotlight now on other mining magnates

The criticisms of Anaconda Nickel by Anglo American during its attempts to change the management echo criticisms of Fortescue.